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At Tal Chhapar, a wildlife sanctuary in the heart of the Thar desert, a strange drama is staged twice every year. In the blistering heat of summer from March to April and the post-monsoon months of September and October, up to a hundred blackbuck males stake out territories on the flat land to entice females to mate with them in a unique assemblage called a lek. Female blackbuck who visit the lek generally spend large amounts of time evaluating males before choosing one as a mate. A large part of this evaluation seems to be based on sniffing — even when being courted, females are so intent on inspecting odors from the dung piles, that they are often oblivious to the males’ antics.